This year’s flagship Wildfire 2024 Conference will be held in Aberdeen on 12-13 November, uniting internationally renowned firefighters and experts in wildfire prevention.
The Moorland Association will be there and we would urge policymakers to also attend.
The UK has seen a significant increase in both the number and severity of wildfires in recent years.
In 2022 fire services recorded 24,316 wildfires in England between June and August, a four-fold increase compared with the same period in the previous year.
Two firefighters were injured tackling the Cannich wildfire in 2023 which burnt through 16 square kilometres, while the Saddleworth Moor wildfire burnt for three weeks in 2018, destroying 18 square kilometres and releasing nearly 500,000 tonnes of carbon.
Considering the devastating effects of wildfire on some of the UK’s most important species, habitat and carbon stores, it is essential we all work together to reduce such incidents and to help prevent them.
Wildfires are almost always caused by human activity, with cigarette ends, disposable BBQs, littered glass and campfires often to blame. When there is dry weather in the Spring and Summer, the uplands become a tinder-box, and the smallest spark can start a huge blaze.
There are several methods that can be used to reduce the amount of vegetation that provides fuel to a fire, but many of these options have limitations.
Cutting vegetation can damage sensitive sites and the machines are not able to traverse steep or rocky hillsides, which limits their use to a small fraction of the uplands.
Sheep grazing is a useful tool but its use has been restricted under some land management schemes.
Controlled burning is a crucial tool that has been used for generations to reduce the fuel load on our uplands. DEFRA is under huge pressure from activists to ban it.
This would be a mistake. At a time when other nations are re-adopting indigenous fire management methods (notably in Australia, Portugal and California) it seems bizarre to be doing the opposite here and encouraging the build-up of highly flammable material, but that is what has happened in recent years.
Government grants and various land management policies have favoured tree planting, reduced sheep grazing, or no vegetation management at all in some parts of the uplands.
As a consequence, bracken and other vegetation has grown abundantly in these areas, significantly increasing the fuel load and therefore the risk of a major fire.
Rather than banning heather burning, the government should be making it obligatory for landowners to implement it, or a suitable alternative like vegetation cutting or sheep grazing, on their moorland.
At a time when people are being encouraged, quite rightly, to enjoy a variety of leisure activities in the great outdoors, it is impossible for us to prevent fires from breaking out. (The Peak District welcomes over 13 million visitors a year). It is therefore essential that we reduce the fuel load of flammable vegetation, so that any fires that do break out are less likely to cause massive devastation.
We need DEFRA and the Government to take urgent action to protect our precious moorland habitats.
Tickets for Wildfire 2024 are available here: https://wildfire2024.co.uk/